Top End author Toni Tapp-Coutts launches sequel

NEW CHAPTER: Local author and sitting alderman on the Katherine Town Council, Toni Tapp-Coutts will release My Outback Life on March 28. She polished off the sequel to her best-selling debut novel in just six months.

Good news for book clubs around the country, Katherine local Toni Tapp-Coutts is releasing a sequel to her best-selling debut novel on March 28.

Mrs Tapp-Coutts captured the hearts of reader across Australia with her outback coming of age story A Sunburnt Childhood published last year.

The local author’s first novel chronicled her childhood spent in Katherine and on Killarney cattle station.

My Outback Life follows Mrs Tapp-Coutts into adulthood and her experiences living in the McArthur River gulf country.

“It is about our fourteen years living in the gulf country and the adventures we had in Borroloola,” Mrs Tapp-Coutts said.

“I started writing about McArthur two or three years ago, I was always intending to tell that story but having a deadline helped me finish it.”

Killarney Cattle Station. Picture: Supplied.

A Sunburnt Childhood took Mrs Tapp-Coutts 14 years to write, but her follow up book took just six months.

“I was offered a contract to write a sequel to be released exactly 12 months after my first book,” Mrs Tapp-Coutts said.

“I found it challenging but I do like deadlines, they serve a purpose.”

Mrs Tapp-Coutts began writing the book as well as being a sitting alderman of the Katherine Town Council.

“I was working full time but I had to quit, towards the end I was writing for four or five hours, seven days a week.”

It appears Alderman Tapp-Coutts has had every job in town, she has served as deputy mayor, executive officer of the Katherine Arts Council, owned her own shop and managed the Museum; all while raising a family.

Her first book had a print run of 15,000 copies, classified as a bestseller in Australia.

Bull-catching Bing Bong. Picture: Supplied.

“It is every writers dream to have a best seller, to produce something that people want to read,” Mrs Tapp-Coutts said.

Mrs Tapp-Coutts will launch her book tour in Brisbane during the first week of April.

“I go into the bookshops, meet the managers and sign their stock,” she said.

“This time they are trying to get me to Toowoomba, there are a lot of retirees from the Territory living there.”

Mrs Tapp-Coutts said she was prepared to be a one-hit-wonder after her first book did so well.

“You just have to keep writing, get it down, you can’t edit an empty page,” she said.